This invention relates to heat adhesive tapes for finishing the hems of trousers, skirts, etc.
Edges of trousers, skirts, curtains and like articles are finished usually by folding back the edge and stitching it down on the main body of the article as by a sewing machine. However, since this method requires much labor and is inefficient, heat adhesive tapes have recently been developed for forming hems quickly. Such a tape is placed on both the folded-back edge and the inner side of the main body and is adhered thereto by being heat-pressed as by an iron. The tape is provided at each side of one surface of the tape main body with a thermoplastic resin thread extending longitudinally thereof in the form of a warp. The thermoplastic resin thread has the property of shrinking when melting with application of heat and solidifying after melting, so that when the tape is heat-pressed with an iron for adhesion to the edge of the fabric, the thread inevitably shrinks before solidification. Especially when the tape is used by an unskilled person, he will carefully and gently iron the tape, permitting transfer of heat to the tape before the tape is subjected to a sufficient pressure and allowing shrinkage of the thermoplastic resin thread without preventing the shrinkage by the pressure of the iron, with the result that the tape itself is subjected to the shrinking force of the thread. Consequently the tape in which the thermoplastic resin thread is provided in the form of a warp markedly shrinks longitudinally thereof to deform or wrinkle the front side of the hem, giving an impaired finish to the hem. To overcome this problem, the thermoplastic resin thread usually has some slack between the locations where it is fastened to the tape main body so as to compensate for the shrinkage with the slack. However, this is not very effective in preventing deformation or wrinkles in practice because when the tape is ironed as applied to an edge portion of the fabric, the thermoplastic resin yarns at both sides of the tape are fused to the tape main body and to the edge portion in the original slack state, such that when the iron is removed from the tape, the yarns shrink as adhered to the fabric.
An object of this invention is to eliminate the foregoing drawbacks of conventional products and to provide a heat adhesive tape for finishing the hems of trousers, skirts, etc. easily by heat pressing with an iron or the like without resorting to stitching, the tape being capable of forming neatly finished hems by minimizing the influence of thermoplastic resin threads due to shrinkage.
Another object of the invention is to provide a heat adhesive tape which is capable of forming neatly finished hems on trousers, skirts, etc. without necessitating any special expedient or care for heat pressing or like procedure and which is therefore much easier to use than conventional tapes of the same type.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a heat adhesive tape for finishing the hems of trousers, skirts, etc. which has high durability as adhered to the hem portion.
Other objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the following description with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: